The Truth about Belgian Beer

Yes, there is beer in Belgium. It is one of the three beer centers of the world. The other two are Germany and America, and I'm starting to think we should add the United Kingdom to that. Allow me to explain.

Germany deserves to be a beer center not because it is the origin of beer (that would be Mesopotamia) but because that's where lager fermentation was perfected. Since then, they have four distinct styles: Pilsners, Hefeweizens, Bocks and Wiessbier's. Alt's fall somewhere in that spectrum, and there are other minor variations, but in general there isn't a lot of variety amongst German brews. Yes, they are good, but they seek to minimize complexity that would be derived from yeasts and hops and thus become somewhat uni-dimensional.

The United Kingdom is the leader of ales. Stouts, porters, brown ales, bitters, milds, barleywines and old ales. Lots of good stuff there, with lots of complexities. Session beers, strong ales, and everything in between. Various ale yeasts at different temperatures, hopping strategies, barrel-aging etc. all lead to a large variety of flavors. Ok .. I've convinced myself to add the U.K. as a beer center.

What about Belgium? It has often been called the "Disneyland of beer", which it rightly deserves. There are unique flavors here that have no other origin. The wild yeasts are the celebrities here, imparting sour and tart notes and myriad fruit flavors. Combined with dark malts we have dubbels - big chewey flavorful brews with tastes of dark fruit. Pilsner malts create lighter and refreshing blondes - add the right yeasts at warmer temps and we get Saision's. Pilsner malts, clean yeast profiles and candi sugars yield golden strong's and Tripel's. Age them in oak, add oxidized hops, have a secondary fermentation on cherries or peaches or whatever ... these brews are generally strong and designed to be savored. Yet ... there is not much experimentation outside of these styles. Blond's, Saison's, Dubbel's Tripel's and fruity ones. Every bar has Duvel. Every restaurant has a Blond, Kriek or Framboise on the menu. Trappist and Abbey ales add some mystique but they are largely similar (with Orval as the exception). Most have Saison's and Tripel's too. But the only stouts are Guiness, no IPA's or pale ales. No lagers. No Porters or Barleywines.

That's what we have in the US. We have variety. We have belgian's, bocks, old ales and IPA's, sometimes in the same breweries. Not all american brews are light lagers, not all american coffees comes from Folgers or Starbucks. Our land is not a small country with a high concentration of a couple brews. It is a large country with a nearly infinite variety of brews, albeit spread out. There's a lot of crap here too, but due to our size, there are also excellent ones. Want world-class belgians? Try Ommegang, Allegaesh, Russian River, Jolly Pumpkin, New Belgium. Lagers? Gordon Biersch has some very good examples, and in the heartland the traditions continue in little towns like New Ulm (honestly, I don't pay much attention to the lagers, they are too prevalent). Brown ales have taken on a life of their own, stouts and porters are common in most breweries. We've redefined how hops are used. But ok .. let's say you want the "real thing". Yeah, you can get Cantillon and Maredsous and Orval and Rodenbach and Paulaner and Guiness and Heineken in the US.

I think you get the point. Belgium is a wonderful place and I am enjoying it immensly, but if you want it all, the US is Beer Heaven.

Sucky things about Brussels

First a quick correction .. what I thought was a Liege Waffle was in fact a Brussels Waffle. The Liege waffle is lighter, crisper, more uniform and served with a dusting of powdered sugar (corn starch). Still very good, not like what we Americans think of as waffles. The Brussels version remains my favorite, and I will seek to reproduce it when I get home. Unless I eat so much I can't stand any more.

We've seen some crime around here, like on Sunday morning two guys fighting over a girl and when she tried to intervene they turned on her, chased her away, and continued to fight until someone in a uniform (presumably police) separated them. Our female coworkers generally don't feel safe walking the streets after dark, and when the sun sets the unsavory characters come out. Beggars and bums, peeing, begging. It isn't pretty.

The traffic here sucks too. We've been taking the Metro around and when it takes about an hour to go 10 miles, 20 minutes on light rail for $2 is a good thing. But today they went on strike to protest the lack of help from the police to quell violence on the rails. Thus, we were driven back from the client ... 12 miles, one hour. Yeah, traffic sucks too, all the time.

But that's about it ... not much to complain about, eh? Oh yeah, the weather. Warm (40F) and not snowing, but since I'm complaining, I might as well complain about the overcast skies with light rain.

Also, consider that Belgium has no government. How's that for ironic? They have none, and in the US we have too much. 

But I have beer ... a coworker brought in a six-pack of Witcap Tripel which, while good, wasn't as crisp as the more well-known Tripel's but it was still quite good. A little more bitter, a little more yeasty, but good. That was followed by a Rochefort 8 - more in the the style of a dubbel with lots of caramel.

Waffles

Have you got a Belgian Waffle Maker? I do.

Do you think it makes  Belgian Waffles? I used to.

Have you ever HAD a waffle in Belgium? I did this morning.

My initial thought when I had the waffle was OH MY GOD THIS IS GOOD!

then "Belgian waffle makers do not make belgian waffles.".

A little more research uncovered that it was, in fact, a Liege Waffle I was savoring. Freshly made in a fold of waxed paper, no syrup, fruits or whip cream, it had a heavy, crunchy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside, caramelized sugar goodness.

Other good eats experienced today were mussels in cream steamed with Bruges Zot Blonde (yep, we went to Bruges). Very very good, with quite a pronounced malt flavor from the Blonde. I paired it with a Bruges Zot Dubbel Bruin, a rich chocolate brown ale with a hint of sourness.

As for Bruges ... more on that in a later post!

Urinals

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you would know that I have at times taken pictures of urinals. Big ones, little ones, etc.

Sooo.... urinals here are like urinals anywhere else, except for one obvious thing, and a couple special ones I found. These special ones were in an english pub (yes .. went to an english pub in Brussels .. how's that for multicultural? Eh, we were right next to it after visiting a grocery store to buy soap and shampoo. 

Of course there was soccer on TV, and of course the beer was warm. Actually, we were given a choice, and my choice was excellent, an Old Ale from Shephard Neame (that is NOT misspelled!) called "Bishop's Finger". It was pretty dang good. Thick, rich, lots of caramel and toffee flavors and a tinge of something else (where DID he put that finger?!?!). Also had a Spitfire (same brewery), and that was like a 'light' version of Bishop's head, finished off with a Aldan's pale ale. All good beer, tons better than BMC.

So anyway, urinals. 

This little bar had the CUUUUUTEST urinals EVER! Perched on a tiled ledge at the appropriate height, they were the size of soccer balls! Never seen a smaller urinal in my life! Tried to get a photo, but alas, cameras in bathrooms with other people don't fare well, so I didn't even try (see, I wasn't drunk!)

Next stop was a wonderful Thai place. We walked for half an hour in circles based on seeing it in daylight. Nope, couldn't find it .. until we got back to the hotel and it was right next to it. Doh!

So yesterday for lunch we were at a nice local sandwich shop when I needed to use the facilities. I went downstairs, and into the restroom, and .... um ... there were women in there. Most guys know to look for urinals when they aren't sure if they are in the right place. And yes, there were urinals. And a guy just came out of the stall. Huh ... it was apparantly a multi-person, multi-sex restroom. Eh, when in Rome ... I did my business.

At the client (a large data-center hosting facility) there are multi-person, SINGLE-sex restrooms. But you know how these restrooms have strategically angled doors and such so that people outside cannot "see anything" if the door is opened? Well, that's not the case here. I'm standing at the urinal, doing my thing, and if the door happened to be opened, then, well, I'd have an audience. Ok, no biggie, I do my thing.

Tonight we started at the Monk bar. I ordered a Morte Subite brew based on reputation. What I failed to notice was that it was a "Kriek Extreme". Hm. Too much cherry for me, although there was a nice roasted nuttiness underlaying it. So I gave that to Tim and got a Borales Tripel, which was an excellent brew which I enjoyed much, and returned the filtered H2O back to a urinal. And yes, this dual-urinal was also in public - no door even. I didn't draw a crowd (guess I'm not hung like a horse) so just did my thing, washed my hands, tried to get a photo but too many people around made me feel like a creep, so I went ordered another beer (Burgoyne Flanders  ... very dry, brown, seems like it had some fruit flavors once upon a time but they were aged out). 

Next stop: Publico for dinner, a French restaurant. I can't pronounce the penne pasta I had, but it had a smoky red pesto sauce with pine nuts. Excellente! And the Ciney Bruin I matched it with was yummy too - a soft, fluffy brown with a hint of tanginess that lingered on the tongue with the roasted barleys aftertaste.

Is Belgium really just about beer, food and urinals? I'll keep researching ... 

Belgium: Disneyland of Beer!

No really, it is a Disneyland of beer here. Go into a grocery store, and there are six-packs of Trappist brews, one bottle from each - not to mention the plethora of other ones we've heard about but never tried back home. Benchmarks from which the beers we drink descended from. The choices are endless, and as I commented to Tim this afternoon, "it must be hard to live here and not be an alcoholic".

The flight across the Atlantic was a money-loser for Delta. We had a couple rows each, able to spread out and actually lie down and sleep. I even slept through breakfast.

We were met by the local account team and spent 90 minutes going 12 miles in heavy Brussels traffic. We should have taken the train! Brussels, like other large european cities I've been to, was large, compressed and mix of ancient and 90's architecture. Out hotel is more like an apartment, but small, with a limited cleaning schedule, one bar of crappy soap, two bottles of non-lathering body wash and no shampoo. It has a small kitchenette, dishes and utensils. But best of all ... it is right downtown, two blocks from the Grand Place, and much closer to awesome beer and world-class cuisine. Being right above the Metro is nice too, but our local contact has driven us to and from the client every day so far.

What isn't so great about Belgium is the occasionaly poop on the sidewalk and pee on the walls - too big and too high up to be a dog. Yuck.

Our co-worker here has an interesting feature on his BMW: When in neutral, not moving, clutch disengaged, the engine will stop. Let the clutch out or shift into a gear and it will start. The idea is to reduce emissions when idling (which happens a lot in Brussels traffic). I always though the starting of an engine introduced significant wear...

Our first challenge in Belgium was to find money. We hit up several banks and a post office, but nowhere did they accept our American Express or Mastercard/Visa accounts. Eventually we found an investment bank that took our personal cards - woohoo! While scouting this out, we found lots of places to eat and drink at later.

Then, later, we did in fact try one of those places, and it was a rude reminder of the fact that europeans smoke like West Virginians. We barely lasted through a glass of Juliper (light lager with some pleasant apricoty yeast byproducts) and went across the street to The Villette, billed as a place with "authentic belgian cuisine". Things got off to good start when we decided to share a 750ml bottle of Saison Dupont organic ale, and got interesting when I realized I had drunk 650 ml of it. This brew is often raised up as the hallmark Saison. Compared to my own, it is not quite as dry and has more fruity peach, cherry and apple esters, which is typical of the Belgian saision strain of yeast. I have been using the French saison yeast, which is very good at drying out the beer but lacks the added complexity. Thus, next time, I will have to brew a 10-gal batch of beer and then split the batch into two, and try a different strain in each fermentor and compare.

What sort of "authentic belgian cuisine" did I find? Why, none other than roasted pork with Orval cheese on top. That's right, the only Trappist brewery which uses brettanomyces in their liquid art also makes cheese. "Delicious" was an understatement. You don't think I could get away without ordering an Orval with the meal, could you? Of course not. The interesting thing here is that we can get this beer at home, but not fresh ... and it is better with a bit of age on it! Still very good, but I will be buying some of these and then aging them in my basement for a year ... yuuuuummmmmmm.

Being tired sucks and jetlag doesn't help, but it REALLY sucks when the mattress is hard. Maybe I'll get used to it? Until tomorrow ... later!